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Vanna Smythe

The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1)

Synopsis

The future is bleak in the year 2102. The planet is in chaos and the weather patterns have completely shifted, turning most of the world into an uninhabited wasteland.
The rich and powerful of North America have pulled back into the six remaining megacities, erasing all trace of a central government and leaving millions displaced by the environmental crisis to fend for themselves in the dying world.
Sixteen-year-old Maya has a gift, a power she thinks can heal the earth and make it habitable again. A gift that she must learn to harness. The school for the gifted in Neo York is the only place where she can learn to control her power and reach her potential.
Yet the school is not what it seems. Ran by the ruthless head of the city of Neo York, the school's only objective is to extract the powers of the gifted and then discard them. Only Ty, heir to the city, can keep Maya from being destroyed there. But Ty has a secret, and his loyalty to his family has never wavered.
Will his growing love for Maya be strong enough to save them both?

Author Biography

Vanna Smythe is the author of the Anniversary of the Veil fantasy trilogy and The Grower's Gift, the first book in a new YA dystopian series. She has been writing creatively since her early teens, though one could say her creative writing efforts started long before that. While still in kindergarten, she once tore up a library book to make alphabet soup, and has been fascinated with what words can do, the pictures and worlds they can create, ever since.
Vanna is currently working on a new YA dystopian series called Progeny of Time, which was inspired by the bleak future presented in The Hunger Games, the fight between good and evil played out in Harry Potter, and the TV show Heroes, but with a totally unique story and twist. And don't worry, the story will be equally fun for teens as well as adults. The second book in the series will be released in Summer 2014.

Author Insight

The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1)

The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) is a new YA dystopian book set in a world where the divide between the rich and the poor has taken on extreme proportions. The environmental crisis has made most of the world a barren wilderness and no one cares about the survivors.

Book Excerpt

The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1)

Ty peered at the map for a few seconds, then pointed at a spot about two hundred miles away. Nothing but wilderness flanked the five small towns in the area. "That should be fine."

"So far? You realize we have to be back by tomorrow night at the latest."

"Don't tell me you're eager to participate in the Nova 18 talks?" Ty asked as he read off the coordinates of the spot he'd chosen. He sat behind the control screen and punched in the numbers. "It will just be more of the same tedious back and forth. Nothing ever gets settled in those talks."

"Of course I care what happens with Nova 18. I think abandoning Earth to settle and eventually destroy another planet is the stupidest idea in the history of humanity!"

Ty regretted asking. Rober was breathing hard beside him, his green eyes bulging, already all riled up about his favorite topic: saving the world. He never shut up about it for more than five minutes since he learned what went on in the world beyond the shield surrounding the city. And that was over ten years ago.

Ty took over the control of the hovercraft and eased it out of the hanger. As soon as they cleared the building, he guided it straight down to the lowest highway and sped up.

"Slow down to the appropriate speed limit!" a mechanical voice chimed from the speakers.

Ty ignored it and sped up even more. There was hardly any traffic on the lowest highway anyway, and he wanted to leave the Ring as quickly as possible.

"No need to kill us all with your flying, Ty," Rober said. "I get it, you don't like talking about politics."

"Politics is fine by me. It's these revolutionary ideas of yours I have a problem with," Ty replied, slowing the craft down when they reached the shield.

The word PASSCODE flashed across the control screen. Ty unzipped his left sleeve and pressed his tiger tattoo, the mark of House Remarque, against the glass. Heat spread through the inked lines as the machine read the code that would open the gate. A few seconds later the craft squeezed through the shield and into the Badlands. Ty let the autopilot take over and leaned back.

Rober glared, his nostrils flaring. "Wanting to help the displaced in the Badlands survive doesn't make me a criminal, Ty."

"I'm not saying you're a criminal. My parents and the rest of the panel, on the other hand, might take that view." Ty chuckled at his own joke.

"Well, they're wrong," Rober said with a straight face. "And it's time someone did something to change their minds."

"I'm fine with it as long as by 'someone', you don't mean me," Ty said, fighting down another chuckle.

Rober kicked Ty's chair, making it wobble. "Of course I mean you. You have the most to lose if things don't change."

Cold seared through Ty's forehead. He grit his teeth to stifle it before it grew. "Don't talk about that, I'm warning you."